How can I reduce reflections when photographing a book under angled glass?
Asked 2/21/2017
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2 answers
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I’m photographing an open book where each page is held flat under a separate pane of glass, forming a V shape. Each pane reflects the opposite page, and I’d like to reduce those reflections as much as possible.
Would a circular polarizing filter on the camera help in this setup, where two glass panes face each other at an angle? If so, when does it work best? If not, what lighting and camera positioning would be more effective for minimizing reflections and keeping the pages accurately reproduced?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
9y ago
2 Answers
1
The light as currently positioned is at an angle to the glass and the reflection will be polarized. A polarizing filter on the lens should help.
For the most faithful reproduction orient the camera perpendicular to the page. It's not to reduce reflections, but if it is oriented at another angle you could skew the image.
Try a ring light on the camera. This makes spurious reflections very near, and hopefully unnoticeable, to the original image. It will also reduce light from the page not being photographed.
Is there another method to flatten the page without glass? A frame around the edges?
Use glass with an AR coating.
Put a black cloth (paper, etc.) over the page not being photographed. I presume there isn't any reason both pages need to be photographed simultaneously. This also looks like a time intensive project anyway. A split second to cover the other page shouldn't matter much.
Turn off extraneous sources of light, turn off room lights, etc.
Use a lens hood or build a hood that extends all the way to the page.
Some combination of these tips should work.
Originally by user71672. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user71672
8y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes, a polarizer may help, but it’s not the main fix here. Polarizers work best when reflected light is polarized by striking glass at an angle; they are much less effective when shooting straight through glass near perpendicular.
The more reliable approach is setup:
- Keep the camera perpendicular to the page/glass for accurate reproduction and to avoid skew.
- Light the page you are photographing, but keep the opposite page unlit or cover it with black cloth/paper if you don’t need both pages at once.
- Position lights so their reflections bounce away from the camera; several answers suggest keeping the lighting angle low enough to avoid direct glare into the lens.
- Work in a dark room and keep the camera/light sources out of reflected angles.
- If there is an outer display case, use flags/shields to prevent your lights reflecting in that glass.
Other options mentioned: a ring light can push reflections close to the lens axis so they are less noticeable, anti-reflection coated glass can help, and avoiding glass entirely (if possible) is even better.
So: try careful light placement first, then add a polarizer if reflections remain.
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